Discussions from a graduating Master's student on items including life in the Upper Midwest, the dismal science, and brilliant beverages.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Republicans do not work in good faith- are WisDems finally getting it?

At least on one issue, it’s nice to see some left-leaning political folks in this state make statements that seem to finally recognize the type of slime that they are dealing with from the other side. And that today’s Republicans can’t be trusted with any procedure that they might abuse to further their power and interests. I generated both of these thoughts based on this week’s filings in the Wisconsin gerrymandering lawsuit, and the resulting reactions.

To review, last month a federal court panel said WisGOP illegally gerrymandered State Assembly (and by proxy, State Senate) districts, and required both the pro-Dem plaintiffs and the WisGOP defendants (aka Brad Schimel’s Wisconsin Department of “Justice”) to file briefs saying how they would like to see the state’s district map re-drawn. And I know this will shock you, but Wisconsin’s hack of an Attorney General wants to give the GOP-run Legislature another chance to re-rig draw the maps.

Schimel is asking the court to keep the map in place for now and wait until the U.S. Supreme Court makes a ruling on the issue. If it decides the map needs to be replaced, it should direct the Legislature redraw it to comply with its ruling, according to his brief.

"The Legislature, the Court, and the parties should not expend resources drawing and debating a plan that is merely a placeholder until the Supreme Court rules on the issue," Schimel wrote.

In their brief, the plaintiffs argue that the judges' November ruling means that the process for creating new maps should begin immediately and the current map should be eliminated…

In one proposal, the plaintiffs suggest an April 1, 2017, deadline for the Legislature to create and approve a new map, and an October 1, 2017, deadline for the court to approve or reject what the Legislature passes and create an alternative.

That proposal "leaves ample time for Wisconsin’s elected branches to enact a remedial plan: 130 days from the Court’s liability ruling, or nearly 50 percent longer than it took for the Current Plan to be designed and passed in 2011," the plaintiffs wrote.

This whole “trust us” routine by the Republicans mirrors the way they slow-walked remedies to their illegal voter ID scheme, culminating in little being done to prevent Wisconsinites from being disenfranchised before November’s elections. That along with other voter suppression methods in Dem-leaning cities played a key role in allowing Donald Trump and Ron Johnson to slip by in the statewide elections, so “Mission Accomplished” in WisGOP world.

The special session was set in motion this week when Democratic Gov.-elect Roy Cooper successfully lobbied the Charlotte City Council to gut a local nondiscrimination ordinance that Republicans had blamed for necessitating the statewide law.

For months, Republicans had said if Charlotte repealed its ordinance, the legislature would consider repealing HB2.

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory called a special session Wednesday, but the deal fell apart when the GOP added a six-month moratorium on cities passing nondiscrimination ordinances for LGBT people. That caused Democrats to back away, calling it only a partial repeal.

The sticking point was a measure in the Senate that would have barred from local governments from passing ordinances that expanded non-discrimination protections until next summer.

To review, the City of Charlotte gets rid of their non-discrimination ordinance, expecting the gerrymandered NC GOP Legislature to then repeal the anti-LGBT statewide bill, then the NCGOP plays games and keeps the anti-gay law in place anyway! The scum that makes up the ALEC whores in the NC GOP were probably high-fiving in the back rooms and snickering “Got those stupid Dems again!”

That act in North Carolina and the WisGOP’s past history in the Age of Fitzwalkerstan should tell you never to trust a GOP to do anything honorable until they actually act by force of legislation or law. And to my pleasant surprise, both of Wisconsin’s Dem leaders in the Legislature came out today saying the same thing, at least when it came to fixing the illegal gerrymandering.

“The court already determined that Republican politicians broke the law when they rigged elections in their favor. It’s unbelievable that Attorney General Schimel wants to rely on that same broken system that Republicans abused rather than standing up for Wisconsin citizens and their constitutional rights.

“Democrats believe every voter deserves to have their voice heard. It’s time we reform our broken redistricting process to take politics out of the equation, empower citizens and create more competitive district maps.”

“Wisconsin Republicans passed a map that has been called one of the worst examples of partisan gerrymandering in modern history. The federal court confirmed that this political power grab was so egregious that it violated the U.S. Constitution.

“Our government is predicated on the right of voters to choose their elected leaders. The court found Republicans went out of their way to draw a blatantly partisan map and undermine the representational rights of many state voters.

How can these same politicians be trusted to create a legal map now? “Action should be taken as soon as possible to begin the process of developing constitutional district maps so that voters can choose their political leaders and not have politicians choose their voters.”

There you go! Now get that message over to a larger audience outstate (HINT: Billboards, letters to local newspapers and radio ads), and STICK WITH IT, and I might start to think the Dem leaders in this state are finally beginning to get a clue as to how to properly respond to this GOP garbage.

2 comments:

Charlotte's repeal did include language regarding a deadline (31 Dec) for state-level repeal: https://twitter.com/FlynnShawn/status/810866065903407104A small example of Democrats handling the trust thing a bit better.

Took me a little while to find, and therein lies the problem in today's media landscape...Exactly what I wanted to find was text of the ordinance, e.g. the facts, and not a rehash of the edges and history of the whole saga.

Even NPR, whom I usually hold to a higher standard of "digging deeper", didn't have links to the "source" (maybe because even they didn't have it).

The people would be better off with data and the internet should be enabling that, not confusing the shit out of everything...

One problem with the Wisconsin Democratic Party is talent and conviction tend to leave or not bother with the Party to begin with. When someone proposes problems and fixes, they don't last. With most of the Dems, it's all about grabbing a position, and then hanging on, working not to rock the boat, lest position is weakened. If the Dems had listened to Joe Wineke, one of the few strategic thinkers, rout after rout could be if not avoided, mitigated.

About Me

This cat's a 40-something libation-enjoying gabber still trying to do the right thing. Watch his crazy adventures as he works and stumbles his way through the great world of public service in the Age of Fitzwalkerstan, while keeping tabs on Bucky Badger and the next Great Depression. I'm told I'm big in Oshkosh.